(Credit: OpenAI)
OpenAI has removed all mentions of Jony Ive's startup "io" from its website and social media pages. The scrub follows a court order prompted by a trademark complaint from iyO, a hearing device startup that graduated from Alphabet’s X moonshot lab.
“This page is temporarily down due to a court order following a trademark complaint from iyO about our use of the name 'io.' We don’t agree with the complaint and are reviewing our options,” OpenAI said in an X post on Sunday.
Ive's io was founded last year by the former Apple designer to develop next-generation hardware for AI. Last month, OpenAI announced it was acquiring the startup for an estimate $6.5 billion. That came on day two of the Google I/O developer conference, prompting some to speculate that OpenAI and Ive were looking to steal some of Google's thunder with io.
However, according to the complaint filed in California district court earlier this month, it was iyO that Ive and OpenAI Sam Altman were trying to squash. The company spun out from Google X as a venture-funded startup in mid-2021, and the following year, the iyO team "had a series of meetings" with Altman's representatives and designers from Ive's LoveFrom studio.
They declined to collaborate at the time, but in spring 2025, OpenAI and LoveFrom had additional meetings about possibly investing in iyO, the complaint says.
"During those meetings, iyO's vision, technology, and approach (including embodiments that are still in development) were shared with [OpenAI and LoveFrom], and seven of [their] representatives were fitted with demo iYO One devices.
"In other words, OpenAI, IO, Sam Altman, and Jony Ive have just announced a significant collaboration in a new venture, io, the name of which is a homophone of [the] iyO name, and the purpose of which is to launch a product whose purpose and function is eerily similar to and competitive with iyO's product," the complaint adds.
OpenAI and LoveFrom are accused of "blatantly and knowingly usurping iyO's goodwill," the complaint says, "causing confusion in the marketplace and disrupting IYO’s marketing plans, manufacturing plans, and capital raise.
"The sheer scale of OpenAI and its investment in IO threaten to swamp IYO’s reputation in the market and its very existence," it adds.
On X, Altman called the lawsuit "silly, disappointing and wrong." He posted emails from iyO founder and CEO Jason Rugolo, who Altman said was "quite persistent in his efforts" to get OpenAI to invest in or acquire iyO. "We passed and were clear along the way," Altman says.
"It is cool to try super hard to raise money or get acquired and to do whatever you can to make your company succeed. It is not cool to turn to a lawsuit when you don't get what you want," Altman added.
As of this writing, OpenAI has taken down mentions of io, but CEO Sam Altman has not.
In the launch video still viewable on his X feed, Altman and Ive are seen hyping up new hardware that can make better use of AI. “I think we have the opportunity here to completely reimagine what it means to use a computer,” Altman says in the video.
According to Bloomberg, the acquisition was to be completed in the summer following regulatory approvals and would have cost OpenAI nearly $6.5 billion. Despite the lawsuit, OpenAI has no plans to drop the acquisition, a company spokesperson tells The Verge.
Once the takeover is completed, OpenAI would merge io’s team of 55 hardware engineers, software developers, and manufacturing experts with its teams in San Francisco. Together, they are expected to create a family of AI-powered devices, and the first one is already being tested.
“The first one we’ve been working on...has just completely captured our imagination,” Ive said in the video. Altman, who has been testing the prototype at home, says: “I’ve been able to live with it, and I think it’s the coolest piece of technology that the world will have ever seen.”
Editors' Note: This story was updated with details from the lawsuit and again with comment from Altman.
Disclosure: Ziff Davis, PCMag's parent company, filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in April 2025, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.